Mariposa — Greg Bear

In an America driven to near bankruptcy by crushing foreign debt and susceptible to outside forces, the Talos Corporation stands out as a major success story, training soldiers and security forces from around the world and providing logistics and troops for nearly all branches of the United States government.

But Talos has other plans. Three FBI agents, first encountered in Quantico, stand between Talos's CEO Axel Price and absolute control. When the President is shot and her second-in-command is found at the scene of a horrific crime, Rebecca Rose- on extended sabbatical from the FBI-is thrust back into service to investigate threads that lead deeper and deeper into Price's organization. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, at the core of Talos, where he has uncovered and hidden critical information. Meanwhile agent William Griffin follows a bloody trail of domestic terrorism fro the Midwest into the heart of Talos's influence.

Enter Nathan trace, victim of a violent incident in the Middle East that led to post-traumatic stress disorder and forced him to enroll in a treatment program, code-named “Mariposa.” The Mariposa subjects begin to experience unexpected side effects that indicate something has gone terribly wrong. Liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns-and all mental limits-they have become brilliant and lethal sociopaths. They are out of control-the smartest men on the planet, the deadliest.

Yet without Trace's help, Rose and her fellow agents will be unable to stop the plan that Price has set into motion-a plan that could leave America shattered and utterly unable to defend itself.